It came after a Fine Gael source said the party would be running a second candidate alongside her in the Dublin South East constituency and could even run a third or fourth in the wake of her attack on "cute hoorism" in Fine Gael.

Ms Creighton (30) said she knew life would be an awful lot easier for her in Fine Gael if she had said nothing.

"If people think threatening me or insinuating that life will be made very awkward for me in the party -- are these the people who seriously want to be in government?" she asked.

This week, Ms Creighton attacked Fine Gael's acceptance of corporate donations from developer Michael O'Flynn -- whose company's loans are going into NAMA. She said it was not a good image for any political party to be in receipt of donations from developers who were associated with NAMA.

Ms Creighton also said last night she did not believe that trying to "browbeat" TDs was something party leader Enda Kenny would support.